Setche Kwamu-Nana

Introduction and Career Transition

Taryell Simmons: All Rise Urban Nation, what do you do when you have been told no, not once, not ten times, but over a hundred times? Do you question your worth? Do you shrink? Or do you study the system and build something from it? Today's guest did not just face rejection; she turned it into research, turned research into strategy, and turned strategy into a business model. Welcome back to The Rise Urban Nation, where we amplify the voices of Black and Pan-African entrepreneurs rewriting the narrative. I am your host, Taryell Simmons. Today we are sitting down with a powerhouse: an engineer turned inclusion strategist, global thinker, and founder of Bridges to Belonging. Please help me welcome my sister, Setche. Setche, welcome to the podcast.

Setche Kwamu-Nana: Thank you, Taryell.

Taryell Simmons: Let's talk about your journey, because it is layered. When I went through your background, I had no idea you started as a chemical engineer working in systems, operations, and efficiency, and now you are transforming organizations and building cultures of belonging. What sparked that transition from engineering systems to transforming people and culture?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: When I was at Caterpillar, I was in a management rotation program moving across locations every year. While working in Mississippi, a facility manager organized a meeting with me. I walked in and the conference room was packed with the HR director, plant VP, and plant manager. The manager said, "Setche, you are a great engineer, but there is so much more to you that we want to leverage." They created a new role for me as a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist. They noticed how I interacted in meetings—observing who felt left out or spoken over and diplomatically bringing the space back to being inclusive. I was practicing inclusion on an individual level without realizing it.

Taryell Simmons: That is wonderful that they recognized that talent within the organization.

Setche Kwamu-Nana: That was around 2012 or 2013. When I stepped into that work, I realized it was my calling. Coming from process engineering and operations optimization, I realized operators often reject new tools or processes not because the tools are poor, but because the people were not included in the design. System problems often originate as people problems; when we address the human side, the systems and processes function far better.

Engineering Principles Applied to DEI

Taryell Simmons: How does your engineering background shape your approach to DEI work?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: My engineering mindset provides a distinct perspective. A core principle for me is: if I cannot count it, it does not count. Unless I can measure the impact, I need to reassess the initiative. I always look at the end result and start with the end in mind. Over time, I also learned that not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted, but my baseline is always striving for measurable systemic outcomes.

Unlearning Biases and the Model Minority Myth

Taryell Simmons: Tell us about the unlearning process in your journey.

Setche Kwamu-Nana: Coming from Cameroon, I initially understood diversity and inclusion as interpersonal harmony rather than systemic equity. I had to unlearn internalized socializations. For example, immigrants are sometimes conditioned with narratives comparing them to African Americans to create division. One day at Caterpillar, an Indian colleague helped me realize the fallacy of the model minority myth when I generalized technical brilliance across an entire population. I realized comparing a pre-selected immigrant sample to an entire domestic population ignores systemic history, access, and privilege. That realization sparked my deep commitment to unlearning, understanding the African American experience, and addressing systemic workplace disparities.

Navigating Corporate DEI and 163 Rejections

Taryell Simmons: You mentioned experiencing 163 job rejections and analyzing the data behind them. What happened during that season?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: After 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, corporate interest in DEI surged. My phone was ringing constantly with recruiters. I was advancing to final rounds in over 90 percent of my interviews, completing multi-day presentations and strategy demos, yet job offers did not materialize. Eventually, senior Black professionals advised me that organizations often looked for candidates who would preserve institutional comfort rather than execute disruptive systemic equity. When a friend shared industry research showing that over 80 percent of DEI leaders were white and only 3.1 percent were Black, it validated that my experience was not an individual failure, but a systemic reflection of corporate hiring dynamics. That data freed me to stop seeking institutional validation and build my own enterprise.

The Brown Keys vs. Silver Keys Framework

Taryell Simmons: What is your Brown Keys framework, and how did it emerge?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: It originated from a personal experience. My roommate changed our apartment lock and gave me a new brown key. When I returned home, I tried every key on my ring, but the door would not open. When my roommate arrived, they took the brown key off my ring and opened the door immediately. I had only tested the silver keys because all my prior keys had been silver; my subconscious assumed only silver keys were qualified. In organizations, we do the exact same thing: we define qualifications through narrow, familiar patterns—the silver keys—and overlook the qualified brown keys right in front of us. To fix this, organizations must re-engineer job descriptions, recruitment pipelines, and promotional systems to focus on cultural addition rather than arbitrary conformity.

The Dilemma of a Conscious DEI Practitioner

Taryell Simmons: What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned from this work?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: I call it the dilemma of the conscious DEI practitioner. Organizations hire practitioners to transform their culture so marginalized individuals can thrive. However, to transform the organization, the practitioner must first survive within it. To survive within it, they are often pressured to assimilate into the very systemic norms they were hired to disrupt. When practitioners resist assimilation, they face turnover, which is why average tenures in these roles often hover around 18 months unless leadership is genuinely committed to structural transformation.

Bridging African and African American Experiences

Taryell Simmons: Why is bridging African and African American experiences vital for collective advancement?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: Systemic oppression relies on keeping communities divided through misinformation and mutual misconceptions. By educating continental Africans on historical and systemic civil rights struggles and sharing the reality of colonial disruptions across Africa, we replace historical division with solidarity, empathy, and collective progress.

Cultural Heritage, Empowerment, and Conclusion

Setche Kwamu-Nana: Reconnecting with deep ancestral history and African contributions to science, mathematics, and civilization gave me the internal grounding to say yes to myself rather than waiting for external systems to validate me. Our cultural heritage is a powerful foundation for innovation and leadership.

Taryell Simmons: Where can listeners connect with your work?

Setche Kwamu-Nana: You can find my YouTube channel, Just IDEAS—focusing on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Solidarity—as well as my Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn under Setche Kwamu-Nana.

Taryell Simmons: Thank you, Setche. To our listeners, remember that rejection is insight and strategy. Keep building.